"Ross River virus affects more than 6,000 Australians every year. If we can find a way to prevent the virus surviving in mosquitoes we can stop it infecting humans.”13 May: Singling out young women for chlamydia screening based on their sexual history is not the best way to tackle Australia’s most prevalent sexually transmitted infection, a University of Canberra researcher has found.
Dr Rhian Parker was part of a Melbourne-based team investigating attitudes among young women to being offered a chlamydia test by their GP. The team found young women would accept screening for all based on their age, but did not want to be ‘singled out’ for a test based on how many sexual partners they had had. In fact they said they would lie about the number of sexual partners they had to GPs.
“There is a stigma around chlamydia and young women feel singled out if they are offered a test based on their sexual history,” Dr Parker said.
“Young women are uncomfortable discussing their sex lives with their GP and some even said they would lie to their GP about their sexual history.
“Clearly asking about sexual history is not the best way to decide who should be screened for chlamydia.
“A better approach would be to ‘normalise’ the offer of chlamydia screening by offering it to everyone in a certain age group. Young women also thought it was appropriate to be offered a chlamydia test in a sexual health consultation.
"This way individual young women do not feel singled out and we can start to overcome the stigma around chlamydia.”
Researchers interviewed 24 young women aged 16 to 24 for the research published in the latest edition of British journal BMC Infectious Diseases.
The reluctance of the interviewees to provide details of their sexual history to their GP was surprising to the research team, particularly as previous research has suggested that women are not so concerned about giving this information when in a family planning or sexual health clinic. The research also found more than half the young women may not tell their partners if they were diagnosed with chlamydia.
Chlamydia is Australia’s most commonly diagnosed sexually transmitted infection. It is most prevalent in the under-25s and can have serious long-term health consequences, including causing infertility in women.
